by Dale Mayer
“And, if something happens to you, what happens to the company?”
“Again, I can’t tell you. I have to take a look at the legal documents. I’m not sure we ever put in a contingency plan, in case all three of us died at once. It’s not a normal circumstance.”
“No, but you need to take a look at it now,” he said. “Today. And you need to contact your lawyer and settle it up because, if somebody is hoping you die too, or if somebody else has decided to step in and make sure they do a clean sweep, does it go to the rest of the employees? Does it get sold and then split by the remaining family members of the three partners? Just what happens?”
“As soon as I can get the energy to sit back up again, I’ll grab my laptop and start looking.”
“I can do one better than that.” Gordon snagged Hailey’s laptop from her bag and handed it to her. Then he went back and grabbed her mouse. “Start looking because we have to head this off right now.”
“I know. I was just trying to avoid any further ugly discussions for at least five minutes.”
“Is the sheriff coming here today?”
“I imagine so, but honestly his hands are pretty full.”
“Jesus, poor Betty. She had nothing to do with any of this.”
“I know. And the same goes for you.”
Gordon looked startled. “You think I’m in danger too?”
“I have no clue.”
Hailey opened her laptop and brought up the partnership’s legal documents. Everything was backed up in cloud storage, where she could get them fairly quickly. As she read through them, she realized nothing was really in place as a safeguard in case all three of them died. She reached for her cell phone and phoned her lawyer. Of course he was busy. She talked to Louise, his clerk, and said she needed him to phone her back as soon as possible.
Louise agreed. “I guess this is about Fred, isn’t it?”
“Just tell him to call me,” Hailey said, then hung up and turned to her brother. “Nobody knows about Phil yet, but it won’t take long.”
“I know,” he said. “That’s why we need the lawyer.”
She gave a strangled laugh. “But, of course, he’s busy.”
“Always. Just keep on him.”
As she thought about it, she realized the lawyer needed to get off whatever the hell he was doing and contact her. She picked up the phone and redialed.
When Louise answered again, she said, “I don’t know where he is.”
“But I need to talk to him right now,” Hailey insisted.
The secretary sighed. “He’s in a meeting.”
“I doubt it. He’s probably sitting there with his feet up on the desk.”
“Same difference,” Louise snapped. “Look. I have to follow what he tells me to say. If I want to keep my job, that is.”
“I’d appreciate it if you would find him.”
“Just a moment.”
Louise put her on hold, and Hailey didn’t know if she would really check up on the lawyer or not, but, just a few minutes later, Charlie’s voice came on the phone.
“What’s up, and why the panic?”
“You heard about Fred, right?”
His voice lowered as he answered, “Yeah, I did. I’m so sorry about that.”
“Are you alone in your office?”
“I am. Louise just left.”
“Did she close the door?”
She could almost visualize him straightening in his chair. “Yes. What’s up?”
“Phil is dead too.”
Stunned silence filled the phone lines for a moment. “What?”
“He was either murdered or it was suicide. Either way, he’s dead.”
“Good Lord.”
“I’m looking at the partnership documents right now. If Phil was murdered too, that’s two partners murdered. I don’t know if I’m next, but we don’t have any contingency in place for the company if all three partners die.”
“Are you sure?”
Hailey imagined he was opening his own set of documents now.
“Are you afraid for your own life?” Charlie asked.
“We’re not sure what’s going on, but it doesn’t matter whether I’m murdered or I get behind the wheel and die in a true accident. What matters is the contingency plan. There’s none in place.”
“What do you want to do then?”
She gave a harsh laugh. “I have no clue. What suggestions do you have?”
“Well, at the moment, the company is 100 percent yours, based on the contract we put into place last year. And, of course, we never thought this would happen.”
“I know,” she said. “Phil and Betty had a foster daughter, Angela. They got her later in life, then had some bigger issues with her when she came of age, and they definitely had a parting of the ways when she starting going out with Walton Longfellow, one of the deputies in town. That was a relationship they didn’t approve of. I don’t think they had much to do with her lately, even though the two split up. Although it’s a moot point now as both Phil and his wife are dead.”
“Betty too?” The lawyer’s voice escalated.
“Yes,” she said. “And, of course, Fred’s wife died a long time ago.”
“Which makes you a very wealthy woman,” Charlie said.
“If I live to see it. I didn’t want to become a wealthy woman through the death of my friends.”
“No, of course not,” he said, his voice subdued. “Okay, I’m writing up a draft. But you need to tell me who you want the company to go to, in case you’re killed.”
She stared at her brother. “My brother would probably hate me for it, but let’s add him there.”
Gordon glared at her. “Don’t you dump that on me. I don’t know anything about finance.”
“I don’t know anybody else who’s good at finance.” She saw a grin flash across his face. “Now what?”
“Except for one person,” Gordon said. “Who you don’t like.”
She stared at him. “Who are you talking about?”
“Carter.”
“Carter’s a military man,” she snapped. “And a carpenter and a jack-of-all-trades.”
“Have you forgotten who helped you when you were running into trouble with some of your finance courses?”
She sagged onto the couch and stared at her brother. “He has a degree in finance, doesn’t he?”
Gordon’s grin widened.
“Jesus.” She shook her head. “I’ll have to think about that. He’s been out of the loop for so long.”
“But you have to leave it to somebody,” the voice in her ear said. “So how about this guy and Gordon? Do they know each other?”
“Best friends,” she said.
“So, leave it to both of them, and they can help each other out.”
A part of her heart laughed because, in a way, it was the perfect revenge on Carter, who hated even the idea of a desk job. But, at the same time, it was also potentially a smart move. She gave Charlie the two names he needed. “Go ahead and do it. Send me the documents and make sure your secretary has no way of knowing about this conversation. The sheriff has already made it clear that I’m not allowed to broadcast Phil’s death.”
“Of course not,” Charlie said, “but you’re allowed to talk to your lawyer.”
“Too bad you’re not a criminal lawyer,” she said, a note of hysteria entering her voice, “because I might need one.”
“They don’t suspect you, do they?”
“Who else will they suspect? They always look to the family and partners first. I just gained a company.”
“And you’re the youngest member.”
“I know.” She groaned “but I didn’t have anything to do with it.”
“Then trust in the law.” He paused before speaking again. “And maybe you need a criminal lawyer who doesn’t live in town. I know what the law is like here too.”
“Which is why you moved,” she said. “If you were still here, I wouldn’t be us
ing you.”
“Let me get this done. I’ll handle this personally and fire the documents off to you. Hold tight for ten minutes.”
She hung up and contemplated the sudden shift in her life.
“Is he writing something up?” Gordon asked.
“I’ll handle it personally,” she mimed.
“So this alone should cost you ten grand.”
“Not quite,” she said. “But, if I am taken out of the picture, it might give us a better idea of who’s doing it.”
Gordon stood in front of her. “I don’t want to hear you talking about something like that.”
“I heard the last part of that but not all of it,” Carter said from the doorway. “Why a lawyer?”
“The company is now hers,” Gordon said, “but they had no documentation in place if something happens to her too.”
“Is that what you now suspect?” Carter’s worried gaze went from Gordon to Hailey and back. “That two members have been taken out, so the third one is the next target?”
“Maybe,” Hailey said.
“But what would happen if nobody was there to take over the company?”
Carter couldn’t believe what had just happened to Hailey. “It makes no sense,” he said.
“Unless it was a murder-suicide,” she said. She hopped up and walked into the kitchen, and in a furious set of motions began making some big vegetable salad. He watched her knife flash with an angry precision and realized it was just to give her something to do. However, in the mood she was in, he wasn’t sure if it was a good thing or not. He exchanged a glance with Gordon, who just shrugged.
“Let’s hope the sheriff can get to the bottom of this fast,” Gordon said.
Hailey scoffed. “Even if he does, you know what the rest of the town’ll say.”
“Doesn’t matter what they say. You and I both know that this isn’t something to play around with. People will talk. It’s not something that’ll affect you.”
“Says you,” she said. “They were my friends. And I really liked them. Particularly Fred. He was a good man. He didn’t deserve to die this way.”
“Phil wasn’t looking very well the last time I saw him,” Gordon said.
She stopped chopping for a moment, as if to consider his words. “You know what? I was thinking the same thing. Maybe that needs to be checked out. Maybe he had terminal cancer or something.”
“And then what? He shot his longtime partner and his wife because he didn’t want to die alone?”
“I don’t know,” she said and resumed chopping vegetables again.
“The sheriff will look into that. And speaking of which …” Gordon pointed out the window.
A vehicle came down the driveway, kicking up a nice cloud of dust.
“Is that the sheriff?” Carter asked.
“Probably,” Hailey said. “He said he would come here.”
She went back to her chopping as if it all had to be done before the sheriff showed up. Carter wondered at her state of mind. But she’d also just lost two friends who were business associates as well and had found the body of one of them. For anybody not used to seeing death, that was traumatic in itself. But, with the rest of this piled on, it could be even worse.
“The sheriff’s connected to the Longfellows, correct?” Carter asked.
“In a distant way. I don’t even know what the tenuous connection is between all my different staff and my company and the Longfellows. It’s something I’ll have to take a closer look at.”
“Who did the hiring?”
“We haven’t hired anybody since I came on,” she said. “Except Slim. And I was totally against that.”
“Are they all long-term employees?”
“Longer than me, so over four years,” she said.
“And, of course, that’ll be tough to handle too,” Carter said. She shot him a look but enough clarity resided in her expression for him to understand she knew exactly what he was talking about. He watched as the sheriff pulled up beside her truck. The man hopped out and walked toward the door at a steady pace. He looked like a no-nonsense kind of guy. But Carter had also heard the rumors and wasn’t too sure how the sheriff’s connection to the Longfellows played out.
The sheriff walked into the open door, nodded at Gordon, then looked at Hailey. “You got a few minutes to talk?”
“Talk away,” she said. “I keep nothing from my brother.”
The sheriff zeroed in on Carter, who leaned against a wall. “And who are you?” he asked with a narrow gaze.
“Carter,” he said. “I’ve met you a couple times over the years, but I think the last time was about three and a half years ago.”
The sheriff frowned. “I don’t remember.” His tone was abrupt, as if he already didn’t trust Carter.
Gordon stepped in. “He’s been here many times over the last fifteen years. He was in the navy until he was injured and is now out of service.”
The sheriff nodded. “Okay, maybe I do remember you.” He frowned though, looking from Carter to Gordon and back to Hailey. “Are you sure?”
“Why not? Everybody else in town will be talking.”
Raleigh sighed heavily. “It’s up to the coroner to make a determination as to whether it was the same killer or not, which will take a while, but I see no logical reason for Phil to have killed Fred.”
“You don’t know that. None of us do. Also you need to check into Phil’s medical records. I think he was quite ill.”
Raleigh looked at her for a long moment. “The coroner will do that too.”
“What happens now with the company? I own it completely,” she said without looking up.
Carter watched the sheriff’s face during the whole exchange. It gave nothing away. Raleigh already knew that information.
“Nobody else gets a piece?”
She shook her head. “No, I’m the sole beneficiary, and, therefore, your number one suspect.” She picked up her chopping board and dumped all the vegetables into a bowl. “Or the next dead body to show up.”
“Can you put that down and give me your full attention?” the sheriff asked.
Hailey slammed down the board and her knife, then turned to glare at him. “How much attention do you want? I didn’t kill any of those three people. They were my friends, and I had a lot of respect for both of my partners!”
“What about Betty?”
“I’ve only met her a handful of times, when we had various company parties and things,” she said. “She seemed like a lovely woman, but I didn’t know her well.”
“Any idea why somebody would target both of your partners?”
“Not outside of the paperwork I showed you today. It’s also quite possible Phil’s the one who killed Fred and then went home and shot Betty and himself.”
“That would make things nice and simple, but there needs to be one hell of a motivator for that.”
“Back to his health then. I don’t know.”
Raleigh looked at Gordon. “I’m asking everybody, so don’t be insulted. Do you have an alibi for last night?”
“What time?”
“After six p.m. Right through the night.”
Gordon motioned to Carter. “Carter arrived on the 5:36 flight. We three had dinner, then all went to bed, and the morning started all over again, just like it always does.”
At the sound of Carter’s name, the sheriff looked at him. “Where’d you come in from?”
“New Mexico,” he said but didn’t offer anything else.
“Just a social visit?”
“Business and pleasure,” he said slowly, crossing his arms. “I’m here on behalf of the US Navy’s War Dogs program. Sent by Titanium Corp out of New Mexico.” He pulled out one of Geir’s cards from his wallet. “Feel free to call him and clear me from any of your local crimes. I was going to stop in and ask you about a missing dog as it is.”
“A dog?” the sheriff said in disgust.
“A highly trained War Dog that the US mil
itary put a lot of money into was supposed to be adopted by Brenda and David Longfellow. However, according to Brenda, they never received the dog. And yet the dog was shipped to the airport here.”
The sheriff scratched the hair under his hat. “Well, now …”
“Apparently nobody reported it missing until the War Dogs division did a follow-up. And found out that supposedly the dog never arrived. Per Brenda anyway.”
“Where the hell is it then?” Raleigh asked. “Dogs just don’t disappear. Especially not dogs like that.”
“Exactly why I’m here,” Carter said with the same cool tone. “To find the dog and to find out what happened to him.”
“Like I need this shit,” the sheriff snapped. “Ah, hell.”
“If it had been dealt with weeks ago, it wouldn’t have been an issue,” Carter said. “The fact that my arrival coincided with a local murder is just that—a coincidence.”
The sheriff nodded but didn’t look like he believed him. “I’ll be phoning your boss to make sure.”
“Go for it. I’m sure he’d be delighted to talk to you. You’re the local law around here, and a very expensive dog went missing, yet nobody seems to give a shit. He’ll want to know any of the relevant information sitting in the case files.”
“I don’t have any case files. I can’t work a crime if nobody reports it.”
“Then we should probably go back to Brenda and ask her why she didn’t report it.”
“That won’t do any good, son. I can tell you that now.”
“Maybe, but that doesn’t stop the fact that military inquiries and local investigations have to be made.”
“Now I know who you are. You talked to Brenda today, didn’t you?”
“I phoned her, yes,” Carter said with a smile. “Did she call you?”
“There’s a message on my desk about some stranger bugging her.”
Carter laughed. “If asking questions about a highly expensive government dog that she signed on to look after and to keep in good health is bugging her, then, yes, that was me. And you can bet her sorry ass I’ll be doing a lot more bugging until I get to the bottom of it too.”
Carter would brook absolutely no interference when he got on a mission. The trouble was, these people didn’t know him when he was on the job, and people like Brenda were just irritants along the way. She could make as many complaints as she wanted, but, if she had anything to do with his dog going missing, he would make sure she paid for it.